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6                                           VIGILANCE FOREVER -           75 years of The Signal                                    1919-1994



         Living the great adventure









         "The strongest human emotion is
        neither hate, nor sex, nor love, nor
        fear.  It is the desire to edit another
        persons copy. "
                               Anonymous

         By JOHN BOSTON
         Mr.  Santa Clarita  Valley

                   ewspapering is
                   the grandest

        N adventure.

           It is the daily safari of tramping
        through God's teeming jungle, taking
         notes on the oddest of creatures -
         kings, poets and perverts. Liars and
        heroes, members of the Department
        of Motor Vehicles. And they all have
         The Story.
           The Story is tragic. Or comic.
         Inspirational or gut-wrenching.
      •  Sometimes, when the wind is just
         right and you get lucky, it's factual.
         The Story is rarely true. It may have
         the names spelled correctly -  again,
         if we're lucky and weren't up the
         night before, weeping with our own
         problems. And all the the saids,' she
         saids' are pretty much verbatim. But                                                                          Engraving courtesy SCV Historical Society
         writing a newspaper story is pretty   Could this 1873 engraving, showing John Lang's confrontation with a bear in  Soledad Canyon, have been a
         much like the Japanese fable of     hint of the valley's newspapering adventures to come?
         "Rashomon." You have one earth-
         shattering event with a half-dozen   beyond, which, at the time, was still   This is not an easy business. It can   stupid. Newspapering seems to attract
         completely different viewpoints and   so mysterious and much unexplored.   cost you alleged friends and money.   few omniscients and fewer saints,
         agendas, both hidden and embarrass-   We fought many good fights over   People sometimes worship comfort    although we can't understand why.
         ingly obvious and usually unprintable.  the years -  and yes, a few bad ones,   and denial above all else and ask why   The pay is low enough and the hours
           For 75  years, The Mighty Signal                                                                          can be brutal. But for any of those
         has been chronicling life in the Santa                                                                      rare instances the past three-quarters
         Clarita Valley. What change. What   'It is the daily safari of tramping                                     of a century, real or imagined, where
         sameness.                                                                                                   we've hurt someone, honestly, we' re
           There are still those living in town   through God's teeming jungle,                                      sorry.
         who remember dirt roads and quieter,                                                                          The Santa Clarita has survived a
         halcyon times. The Valley was a sim-                                                                        500-foot wall of water descending on
         ple farm town of 500 souls. On Feb.  taking notes on the oddest of                                          this valley when the St. Francis Dam
         7,  1919, the very first Newhall Signal                                                                     broke in 1928. We've cleaned up and
         hit what streets there were and the die  creatures -          kings, poets and                              rebuilt after floods and fire, depres-
         was cast for that irreverent, question-                                                                     sions, wars, earthquakes and teen-
         ing, caring style that has been the   perverts.       '                                                     agers. Despite our own building burn-
         unmistakable trademark of this com-                                                                         ing down, or being shaken by the
         munity's newspaper ever since.                                                                              throat by monumental continental
           We ran jokes in the first Signal.   too. If you're a good community   can't we just print the positive. We   tremors, in 75 years, we've never
         And chicken tips. (i.e., tips on raising   newspaper, you're the heart and soul   can't. Because like a good parent, no   missed getting a newspaper out to our
         chickens.) We called for a variety of   of your town, both cheerleader and   matter how much we love our chil-  community.
         civic improvements -  like a steam   preacher. But there are days when you   dren, there are times when we have to   It's called vigilance. It's forever.
         laundry, pool hall, sugar factory and   have to be more. There are times   present information that our children
         even a bank -  to join us in our vil-  when even in good stewardship, you   don't particularly want to hear -  but   John Boston first worked for The
         lage of commerce and community.     have to uplift a rock to expose those   it's information they really,  really   Signal in 1971 and is currently editor
         World War I had just ended and we   who murder. Or cheat their neighbor.   need to know.                    of Son of Escape,  The Signal's weekly
         reached out to the larger community   Or violate a public trust.          We've been dead wrong and plain   entertainment section.
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